Known for the beauty of her intensely focused and warm tone, Canadian mezzo-soprano Marianne Bindig is beloved of audiences of the concert, recital and opera stages.
Widely praised for her artistic commitment and her masterful interpretive and communicative abilities, Marianne excels in a wide range of concert repertoire from Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Mass in B Minor to Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death and Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody. Franz Paul Decker conducted her National Arts Centre debut when she sang the title role in Alessandro Scarlatti’s Il Primo Omicidio overo Caino, and invited her to return to sing in Strauss’ Der Zigeunerbaron and Bach’s Johannes Passion. In the spring of 2009 she returned to Thunder Bay to perform Berlioz’ Les nuits d’été.
“Marianne Bindig gave us a gripping performance; her remarkable diction made every word of the text clear, and her mental and emotional focus took us deep into the heroine’s psyche.”
~ Urjo Kareda for The Globe and Mail
Marianne has also soloed with the renowned Les Violons du Roy, the Iseler Singers, the Bell’Arte Singers, the Aradia Baroque Ensemble, the Mississauga Choral Society, and the orchestras of Edmonton, Hamilton, Kitchener Waterloo, Thunder Bay, Niagara and Regina. On the recital stage she has appeared with the Summer Festival at Blair Atholl, Scotland, Strings Over the Caribbean, the Toronto Aldeburgh Connection, Music Toronto and the Du Maurier Young Artists Series. Ms. Bindig has also collaborated on numerous occasions, with the renowned lutenist John Edwards (The Musicians in Ordinary) in the music of the Italian, French and English Renaissance.
“If a Cherubino could steal the show, Bindig would do it… with a thrilling, lustrous mezzo voice, and the slim appearance to make an ideal Cherubino.”
~ John Charles for The Edmonton Sun
On the opera stage, Marianne has also made her mark as an exciting and versatile performer. She has performed roles from Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice to Varvara in Janacek’s Katya Kavanova (L’Opéra de Montréal, Florida Grand Opera) to the title role in Bizet’s Carmen (Calgary Opera Association). She also sang Maddalena in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Hänsel in Humperdink’s Hänsel und Gretel and Cherubino in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro for Calgary Opera. Marianne was an ensemble member of The Sound of Music cast (David Mirvish Productions, Toronto) also covering the role of the Abbess which she performed 28 times.
Other opera credits include the Page in Salome, directed by Atom Egoyan (Vancouver Opera), Baba the Turk in The Rake’s Progress, Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Der Trommler in Der Kaiser von Atlantis and Pitti-Sing in The Mikado (all for Edmonton Opera). Edmonton was also the scene for her recent acting debut in Theatre West’s production of The Emperor of Atlantis, a Play About an Opera.
For Kentucky Opera, she has played Meg Page in Verdi’s Falstaff and Tisbe in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, a role she also sang for Calgary, Edmonton and Manitoba Opera. She made her debut with Arizona Opera to critical acclaim as Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and has sung several roles for Toronto’s prestigious Opera Atelier, including a dramatic presentation of Britten’s Phaedra.
Ms. Bindig is also a gifted poet and has enjoyed collaborations with John Greer and the late Harry Freedman. Mr. Greer created a song cycle for Tracy Dahl on a group of Marianne’s poems entitled The Red Red Heart which premiered at the Winnipeg Symphony Contemporary Music Festival and was broadcast nationwide on the CBC. Two songs from this cycle were published by PLANGERE Editions in early 2009 in their Toronto Songbook. The entire cycle was later published by the same house. Another cycle entitled The Promised Land was written for soprano Lorna Macdonald and trumpeter Guy Few and performed in Toronto and across eastern Canada. Harry Freedman and Marianne collaborated in 2003 to create a song cycle entitled Spanish Skies for Stacie Dunlop which premiered in the same year and was recorded by CBC for Soundstreams. This cycle, published by PLANGERE, was released in the fall of 2015, and is also available at the CMC. In 2005 her poetry was adapted by roots musician Ben Beveridge for his CD The Parlour Sessions and released on the Sandrock Ranch label. A cycle entitled This Land was commissioned by mezzo soprano Kimberly Barber and premiered in May of 2017 at the The Registry Theatre in Kitchener, Ontario. The cycle, composed by Abigail Richardson-Schuttle, contains texts by various poets, including Bindig. In August of 2001 Marianne was joined by friends to give a reading of poems at the old Idler Pub to a capacity house. In October of 2010 she and 4 of her colleagues gave a reading of her poetry at the University of Toronto, Walter Hall, as part of the Tuesday Noon Series.
“Marianne Bindig gave Rosina a gorgeous golden voice that soared easily through Rossini’s arias.”
~ Jennifer Lee Carrell for the Arizona Daily Star
Ms. Bindig was twice a fellow at the Tanglewood Center (summer home of the Boston Symphony), attended four sessions at the Banff Centre in Canada and completed three courses of study at the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh, England. She was educated at the University of Toronto where she received her Bachelor of Music Performance and her Diploma in Operatic Performance, from which program she received the Distinguished Graduate Award.
She is the recipient of several awards including a Chalmers Foundation Grant. Recently Ms. Bindig returned to OISE, University of Toronto, to gain her Bachelor of Education, specializing in Music and Drama.